The events around Jerusalem in the last days

The introduction of Antichrist, a shepherd [1]

in Israel, brings in also the events that crowd around Jerusalem in
the last days. All the nations should be gathered round Jerusalem, but
only to find it a burdensome stone that should crush them. God would
judge the power of man, but would raise up His people in sovereign
grace. He would destroy the nations that had come up against
Jerusalem. The deliverance of the people by the power of Jehovah comes
first. This is sovereign grace to the chief of sinners -- the feeble
but beloved Judah, who had added to all her rebellion against God, the
despisal and rejection of her King and Saviour.

The rejected One whom they pierced presented to the people as
Jehovah their Deliverer

The grace of God takes the lead over all the resources of man. The
audacity of the enemies of God's people stirs up His affection, which
never diminishes; and thus, by compelling God to act, this very
audacity becomes the means of proving the faithfulness of His
love. Judah, guilty yet beloved Judah, is delivered -- that is to say,
the remnant, to whom the affliction of Israel had been a burden; but
the question of her conduct towards her God still remained.
Nevertheless the grace shewn in her deliverance had wrought upon her
heart. The law we know was written in it, but much more. To be loved
by a God against whom one has so deeply revolted melts the
heart. Grace then goes farther, and presents to the people the Messiah
whom they had pierced. The Rejected One is the Jehovah that delivers
them. It is now no longer merely the cry of distress, that has no
refuge but Jehovah. Israel, more strictly Judah, no longer a prey to
the terrible anxiety which her distress occasioned, is entirely
occupied with her sin felt in the presence of a crucified Saviour. It
is no longer a common grief, that of a nation crushed and trodden down
in its most cherished sentiments. It is now hearts melted by the sense
of what they had been towards One who had given Himself up for
them. Each family, isolated by its personal convictions, confesses
apart the depth of its sin; while no fear of judgment or punishment
comes in to impair the character and the truth of their sorrow. Their
souls are restored according to the efficacy of the work of Christ. It
is this which definitively brings the people into relationship with
God. We have seen the same moral order in the typical history of David
-- first, the ark on Mount Zion, and then the threshing-floor of
Araunah the Jebusite.

[1] The worthless shepherd (v. 17), I suppose, is the same. He deserts
the Jews, and identifies himself with the Gentile power when the
Jewish worship is put down. He is "a thing of nought," as
Jer.